Chandigah: Around 30 cases of withdrawing money using cloned ATM cards of nationalized banks have been reported since August from Chandigarh, and Mohali and Panchkula, the city's suburbs in Punjab and Haryana. Lakhs of rupees have been withdrawn fraudulently from Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) in Chandigarh and neighboring towns in the past four months, the culprits will be nabbed soon.

Around 30 cases of withdrawing money using cloned ATM cards of nationalized banks have been reported since August from Chandigarh, and Mohali and Panchkula, the city's suburbs in Punjab and Haryana. "We are looking into all aspects and will nab the culprits soon. We are working with bank officials and surveillance around ATM machines has been enhanced," senior superintendent of police Naunihal Singh. Residents, meanwhile, are growing increasingly worried. "I had withdrawn Rs.5,000 on Nov 12 and there was a balance of Rs.64,000. Then, I received SMSes saying that money has been withdrawn from my account. I checked with the bank manager and he said money was withdrawn from different ATMs of the city," said Ravinder Kumar, a sub-divisional engineer with the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL).

A police officer explained the probable modus operandi of the thieves. The miscreants would have cloned the original ATM cards by placing a card-reader in the machine slot. They might have got the password by placing a micro-camera somewhere near the machine. We have appealed to people to change their PIN (Permanent Identification Number) frequently as a precautionary measure.